NEWS

Future teachers get certificates in days, not
weeks

Pilot entitlement system slashes turnaround
time by 90 percent

Springfield - Thedialogue
may be straight from the 1970s “Six Million Dollar Man” television
series. But the vision is thoroughly modern.

Several months ago,theState Board of Education’s
Rob Sampson and Western Illinois University’s Linda Tomlinson
looked at the state’s teacher certification entitlement system. ‘We
have the technology, we can rebuild it,’” Tomlinson said.

And they have.

Sampson, division administrator for the State Board’s Certification
division, and Tomlinson, Western’s certification officer and
Special Education Dept Chair, are piloting a new electronic entitlement
system that puts state teaching certificates in future teachers’ hands
in two to three days, instead of four to six weeks.

Sampson envisions the day when prospective teachers will be
able to apply for their certificates using hand-held computers
while walking down the street, he said. But until then the program
being piloted is almost as revolutionary.

“This is another example of the work the State Board is doing
to streamline and improve the process of becoming a teacher,” said
State Superintendent Glenn W. McGee.

“As we address the growing teacher shortage, we must make the
profession as attractive as possible, and easing the move into
the classroom for new teachers is one good way to do that,” he
said.

Sampson teamed in March with Tomlinson, whose university prepares
several hundred prospective teachers annually.

“(Sampson) was doing the best he could, and we were doing the
best we could, but we were hearing that it just wasn’t good enough…(that)
there’s got to be a better way,” Tomlinson said.

The current system requires universities to notify the State
Board that future teachers have completed their preparation and
are “entitled” to a certificate pending the completion of an
application and payment of fees through a regional office of
education.

After receiving entitlement notification from the universities,
the State Board awaits paperwork and fees to arrive from a regional
office of education where the student has chosen to make application.

These future teachers then forward their paperwork to a Regional
Office of Education, which processes the fees and forwards more
paperwork to the State Board.

The State Board gets paperwork from a Regional Office, then
prints out and mails teaching certificates back to the Regional
Office, which then sends them along to the students.

The whole procedure can take four to six weeks depending on
how quickly the student works and the speed of the mail service,
Sampson said.

In the new system, the university - Western Illinois in this
case, as partner of the pilot project - electronically notifies
the State Board that a student is eligible for certification;
helps the student complete the application; collects the appropriate
fee; and ships the paperwork overnight to the State Board, which
then prints certificates and mails them immediately to students.

The teacher then registers the new certificate with a Regional
Office and is ready to begin teaching.

So far, the pilot has worked very well, Tomlinson said. “I think
the fact that we’re saving students so much time is the best
part of this,” said Tomlinson, whose university files 400 to
450 entitlements each year.

The State Board prints about 7,000 certificates for new teachers
annually. The new system, if eventually implemented statewide,
would save a tremendous amount of time and paperwork, Sampson
said.

The pilot is slated to continue through July and if all goes
well, Sampson said he would like to expand it. He has recently
heard that other universities and regional superintendents also
want to participate, Sampson said.